31.5% of overall budget for health, education sectors

The Government has set aside over 30% of the $330 billion 2020 National Budget for the health and education sectors.

The Ministry of Health will receive a total of $51.7 billion or 15.7 per cent to carry out its work for the remainder of this fiscal year while education will receive $52 billion or 15.8 percent.

Of the $51.7 billion allocated for health, $14.3 billion is budgeted for the procurement of drugs and medical supplies.

Corrective action to facilitate the procurement of emergency supplies of drugs and medical supplies, to the tune of $3.2 billion, is underway and a full review of quantification and procurement practices is being currently undertaken, as there is a lack of evidence of any purchased drugs and medical supplies since 2017, Public Works Minister Juan Edghill told the House during the presentation of the first budget for the PPP’s five year term.

Government has budgeted $143.3 million for HIV-related drugs and medical supplies while it also seek Global Fund support to significantly bolster national testing capacities.

Edghill said the situation at the Georgetown Public Hospital requires aggressive attention and as such the Government has budgeted $15 million to continue the extension of the accident and emergency and medical outpatient departments.

Additionally, another $20 million was budgeted to commence the design of a four-storey building to relocate the pharmacy and medical records services, and to create on-call accommodation for medical personnel. Overall.

“We have budgeted $11 billion for GPHC, for 2020, which includes $2.5 billion for drugs and medical supplies. The overall budgeted amount represents $1.4 billion more than was expended for the GPHC in 2019.

Meanwhile, of the amount budgeted for education, over $1.7 billion is allocated for the construction and rehabilitation of schools across the country and over $300 million is allocated to blended learning options in keeping with COVID – 19 restrictions.

Government has allocated $3 billion to the University of Guyana. Of this amount, $221.3 million is allocated to complete and advance several roll-over projects across both campuses including the new sewer system, the human resources and bursary building, the pump house, teaching learning centre and electrical upgrade projects.